„On the Occupation of the Castle of Várad by the Pagan Turks...”

An excerpt from the burb:

This book is a real delicacy for readers interested in history. It is an authentic chronicle of the 1660 Ottoman siege of the Nagyvárad castle, with cannon shots, burning gunpowder and bleeding wounds. This manuscript was an antecedent of the Siralmas magyar krónika [Mournful Hungarian Chronicle] by the same János Szalárdi, one of the authors that knew most about the Principality of Transylvania and the Ottoman wars. Although thoroughly researched and quoted for centuries, this work has gone somewhat forgotten by today, so now it is time to re-publish it. On the first 150 pages of the facsimile edition by National Széchényi Library the readers interested in the history of Transylvania and Partium (especially Nagyvárad) can browse through the 17th century document and its to-the-letter transcription.

Between the glorious Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period revival of Nagyvárad, the year 1660 stands like a division line. The Ottoman siege destroyed the castrum and the town. It put an end to the golden age of Nagyvárad, and led to some decades of stagnation after which, when the Turks had been expulsed, the Early Modern Period brought to life the town as we know it. But what exactly were the causes of the destruction of Nagyvárad in the 17th century? Our history summary tries and answer this question looking also for relations between Szalárdi’s description of the siege, the manuscript at NSZL under catalogue number Quart. Hung. 98, the fragments of the first report written in Debrecen by the defenders forced to give up the Várad castle (now kept in the Hungarian National Archives), and the text variations of later copies.